Regular season closes at Sac State

Thursday, May 16

Sacramento, Calif. / John Smith Field

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Sacramento State

Photo by: Josh Hauser

5/15/2019 7:00:00 PM | Baseball

GCU Game Notes Sac State Game Notes 2019 Media Guide

Top-5 WAC teams match up with tourney seeding on line

By: Josh Hauser

May 16-18 \| John Smith Field \| Sacramento, Calif.

	GRAND CANYON LOPES (32-20, 17-7 WAC)	at	SACRAMENTO STATE HORNETS (31-21, 16-8 WAC)

PITCHING PROBABLES

GAME 1 • Thursday, May 16 • 7 p.m. MST
Live Stats • Live Video
RHP [FR] Pierson Ohl (6-4, 3.72) vs. RHP [JR] Austin Roberts (4-4, 3.56)

GAME 2 • Friday, May 17 • 6 p.m. MST
Live Stats • Live Video
RHP [JR] Kade Mechals (10-1, 2.26) vs. RHP [SO] Scott Randall (7-1, 2.56)

GAME 3 • Saturday, May 18 • 12 p.m. MST
Live Stats • Live Video
LHP [R-SO] Jack Schneider (3-1, 2.81) vs. TBA

A 55-game regular season schedule wraps with a three-game series at Sacramento State beginning on Thursday night. The Lopes and Hornets have locked in a spot in next week's WAC Tournament but are still vying for tournament positioning.

The Lopes and Hornets are among five teams within reach of the conference's regular-season title and a bye in the first round of the tournament that starts Wednesday in Mesa, Ariz. GCU is tied for second place with California Baptist and one game out of first place but CBU is not eligible for the tournament as part of its Division I transition. Sac State is tied for fourth place with UT Rio Grande Valley and one game behind the Lopes.

GCU has won 12 consecutive conference games while Sac State is 4-6 in its last 10 WAC games.

All three games will stream on the WAC Digital Network.

THREE THINGS TO KNOW

12 OVER: With a Tuesday victory at UC Riverside, the Lopes are 12 games over the .500 mark for the first time in the program's 14 Division I seasons. GCU peaked at 11 games over .500 last year. The Lopes are also one win away from tying their top mark for wins in a D-I season.
GOOD EYE: A handful of GCU's Division I career records are in jeopardy with the Lopes' veteran senior class threatening to break the marks. Senior Austin Bull is the closest to taking sole possession of a top mark, tying the record for most walks drawn in a career (107) on Tuesday. Senior Tyler Wyatt is five games away from tying for most games played (203) while Bull is nine runs and nine hits shy of tying those marks.
STREAKING: GCU has won its past 12 conference games, sweeping four straight series. It's the longest conference win streak in the program's D-I history. The Lopes are 15-2 in their past 17 games and ended the home schedule on a nine-game win streak.

SCOUTING

Sacramento State is among five teams within two games of first place in the WAC. The Hornets are tied for fourth, two games back of first. The Hornets heavily rely on pitching for their success. Sac State has a 3.96 overall ERA that ranks second in the WAC. As good as their pitching is, the Hornets' .238 batting average ranks second worst in the conference. Sac State advanced to the championship round of the 2018 WAC Tournament, falling just short to New Mexico State to miss out an the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Hornets were the conference's representative into the NCAA tournament in 2014 and 2017.

Sac State has been on the road in back-to-back WAC series. Most recently, the Hornets dropped two of three games at Utah Valley last weekend. The Hornets lost in Games 1 and 3. Sac State dropped its final midweek game of the season, a home contest against Saint Mary's 6-3.

Last year, Sac State ended GCU's season in an elimination game in the 2018 WAC Tournament. The Hornets won 8-2. In the regular season, the Lopes recovered from a series-opening loss to win Games 2 and 3 and take the series in Phoenix. After the Hornets' 9-5 win to open the series, the Lopes responded with 8-5 and 10-2 victories.

WHAT'S NEXT

GCU will participate in the WAC Tournament at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Ariz. Depending on how things play out throughout the conference, GCU could begin play on Wednesday or Thursday. For a complete bracket of the tournament, click here.

For more GCU baseball news, notes and numbers, click here to view game notes and click here to view the media guide.